Iran Executes Two Gay
Teens In Public Hanging
UKgaynews.org.uk from
the Web, July 21, 2005
LONDON -– Two gay teenagers
were publicly executed in Iran on 19 July 2005 for the ‘crime’ of homosexuality.
The youths were hanged in Edalat (Justice) Square in the city of Mashhad, in
north east Iran. They were sentenced to death by Court No. 19.
Iran enforces Islamic Sharia law, which dictates the death penalty for gay sex.
One youth was aged 18 and the other was a minor under the age of 18. They
were only identified by their initials, M.A. and A.M.
They admitted -– probably under torture, London-based gay human rights group
Outrage! suggests –- to having gay sex but claimed in their defence that most
young boys had sex with each other and that they were not aware that
homosexuality was punishable by death.
Prior to their execution, the teenagers were held in prison for 14 months and
severely beaten with 228 lashes.
Their length of detention suggests that they committed the so-called offences
more than a year earlier, when they were possibly around the age of 16.
Ruhollah Rezazadeh, the lawyer of the youngest boy (under 18), had appealed that
he was too young to be executed and that the court should take into account his
young age (believed to be 16 or 17). But the Supreme Court in Tehran
ordered him to be hanged.
Under the Iranian penal code, girls as young as nine and boys as young as 15 can
be hanged.
Three other young gay Iranians are being hunted by the police, but they have
gone into hiding and cannot be found. If caught, they will also face
execution.
News of the two executions was reported by ISNA (Iranian Students News Agency)
on 19 July.
A later news story by Iran In Focus, allegedly based on this original ISNA
report, claimed the youths were executed for sexually assaulting a 13 year old
boy. But the ISNA report does not mention any sexual assault.
A report of the executions on the website of the respected democratic opposition
movement, The National Council of Resistance Of Iran, also makes no reference to
a sexual assault.
The allegation of sexual assault may either be a trumped up charge to undermine
public sympathy for the youths, a frequent tactic by the Islamist regime in
Iran.
Or, Outrage! suggests, it may be that the 13 year old was a willing participant
but that Iranian law (like UK law) deems that no person of that age is capable
of sexual consent and that therefore any sexual contact is automatically deemed
in law to be a sex assault.
If the 13 year old was sexually assaulted, why was he not identified and also
put on trial (under Iranian law both the victims and perpetrators of sexual
crimes are punished)?
Full story in Farsi from ISNA, with three photographs can be seen at
http://isna.ir/Main/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-556874
“This is just the latest barbarity by the Islamo-fascists in Iran,” said Peter
Tatchell of the London-based gay human rights group OutRage!
“The entire country is a gigantic prison, with Islamic rule sustained by
detention without trial, torture and state-sanctioned murder.
“According to Iranian human rights campaigners, over 4,000 lesbians and gay men
have been executed since the Ayatollahs seized power in 1979.
“Altogether, an estimated 100,000 Iranians have been put to death over the last
26 years of clerical rule. The victims include women who have sex outside
of marriage and political opponents of the Islamist government.
“Last August, a 16 year old girl, Atefeh Rajabi, was hanged for ‘acts
incompatible with chasity.’
“Britain’s Labour government is pursuing friendly relations with this murderous
regime, including aid and trade. We urge the international community to
treat Iran as a pariah state, break off diplomatic relations, impose trade
sanctions and give practical support to the democratic and left opposition
inside Iran,” said Tatchell.
Outrage! Is calling for world-wide urgent action and asks that you protest to
the Iranian Ambassador at the Embassy in your country. In addition,
Outrage! asks that you also press your government to take urgent action against
Iran.
Last week in Nigeria, Yusuf Kabir (40) and 18-year-old Usman Sani appeared
before Judge Mustapha Sani Saulawa at Katsina’s Sharia Court Number Three
charged with committing sodomy.
The hearing was adjourned until early August. If convicted, the pair
could face death by stoning.
Earlier this month, Reuters reported from Nigeria that a
50 years-old man had been sentenced to death by stoning after admitting to a
judge that he had had homosexual sex. This was immediately after the court
had found him not guilty of having sex with a teenage boy.
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